Various genetic or cellular modification therapies for treating or repairing diseased or damaged tissue are in development. For example, the delivery of skeletal myoblasts into damaged myocardium may be an effective treatment for repairing myocardial scar tissue following an infarct. Locally effective doses of a pharmacologic, genetic, or biologic agent may be toxic when given systemically. Systemic delivery of cells may be ineffective at the damaged tissue site and may be an inefficient use of specially cultured or harvested cells. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a fluid-delivery device and method for delivering cells or another genetic or biologic agent locally at a targeted tissue site.
Drug-eluting leads are commercially available and used for delivering, for example, an anti-inflammatory agent at an implant site. Drug-eluting devices are generally limited to treating only a relatively small volume of tissue at a device-tissue interface. The pharmacological effect is in part limited by the kinetics of the drug leaving the device. Biologic and genetic agents may have a limited shelf life, requiring unique storage conditions such as refrigeration, and may not tolerate sterilization procedures. Therefore, it is not desirable to package a device having drug eluting capabilities with the biologic or genetic agent already incorporated therein. To take advantage of various genetic or cellular modification therapies, it is desirable to provide a delivery device that allows a pharmaceutical, genetic, or biologic agent to be delivered to a targeted site at a depth within the tissue to treat a volume of tissue.